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A Saturday at the Beloit RiverFest

We spent yesterday hanging out in Beloit, WI at their Riverfest. The main reason we were there was to see AlterBridge and Collective Soul, but rather than go down at the end of the day we decided to make a day of it.

The festival is not something you can “make a day of”.

We spent a lot of time walking around, but not much time doing anything. Carnival games is not something we’re really interested in, so a lot of time was spent just sitting together and talking, or watching the kids play tag to kill time.

However, we did see some good bands. The band 529 opened on the main stage where AlterBridge and Collective Soul were to play at about 5:30. One thing we noticed immediately was that, although the ads for Riverfest that we had seen said, quite explicitly, that no cameras were allowed, everyone except us ignored the restriction. So out of everyone there, we were the only ones unable to get pictures except for a couple I tried to take with Jonnas cameraphone that wound up being worthless. So the first lesson, when they say they don’t allow cameras, they don’t really mean it apparently.

I enjoyed 529 a lot. They were a cover band, doing a lot of Nickelback, Seether, and Green Day stuff. They sounded great.

AlterBridge was incredible. Mark Tremonti is an excellent guitar player and the band really put on a good show. I found this show to be the most enjoyable of the evening. I really wish we would have ignored the stated camera rules, because we had some great seats and would have gotten some incredible pictures. The show was awesome.

Towards the end, however, we got tired of all of the people around us and decided to move way to the back of the park, so that we could listen to the music without dealing with the people. People at these kinds of shows are extremely self centered, and don’t look at the fact that they are positioning themselves in front of a group of people that have been sitting there all day to aquire their seats. I really wish people were more socially conscious sometimes.

Collective Soul was good, but we didn’t enjoy that show as much as the AlterBridge one. They’re a great band, but for some reason we weren’t that into it. We stayed for most of it, but wound up leaving to beat the mad rush out of the grounds.

So to wrap up and present a summary:

Go for the show not the day unless you’re very good at amusing yourself

bands — good

people — rude and self centered

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One thought on “A Saturday at the Beloit RiverFest”

A buddy of mine sent the link to thee blog he must have found googling 529 or riverfest. Just wanted to say thanks for the kind words. Opening for bands that caliber with covers is risky, at best. We have a great diehard following for what we do but it is nice to hear others enjoyed it that are from out of town.